Thursday, June 28, 2012

I'm late in posting these pictures but I just had to blog about our North Carolina/Georgia Fam coming to town!

I lost my camera battery before they came to town so I had no camera. I also took lots of pics with my phone and wouldn't you know it - my iphone died (as in not coming on ever again) and I lost everything.

My friends, Chad, Faith, & Jenna came to town a couple of days early so we could visit and they could meet the girls. I was excited for Faith to finally meet her namesake. :) I love this girl like a sister and I can't wait for her babies to arrive in November!! I've already claimed them as my niece/nephew. I'm guessing she's having one of each or two girls. Amelia says two girls and says it with such confidence, I'm starting to believe her. We will know soon!!

Watching Faith and Chad with the girls just warmed my heart. They're going to be the best parents. They've waited so long for this and I have no doubt they will cherish every single second of parenthood. That's one of the positives of infertility. I can say that because I've been there. You're just so thankful to finally have your miracle baby - every moment is precious. Poopy diapers, sleep deprivation, not showering for days...it's all just a huge blessing in an infertile's eyes. ha!

Sweet JennaBabe. I love this girl. I like to surround myself with folks who make me laugh and this girl is funny. She makes me laugh so hard. She's so tiny and cute. I'm going to find her a handsome Arkansan and move her next door to me. Chad and Faith are going to have to move here too, once the babies arrive. I haven't told them yet. Hope they're ok with that.

Amelia loves to have company. She was quite happy to have these guys over. She's bossy and they did whatever she wanted to do. At one point she had Chad playing dress up and had JennaBabe playing ring-around-the-rosy in a shoe store...basically just making her "fall down" over and over in public. ha! They were awesome with her.

She keeps in touch with them through heytell. Girl loves some heytell.

Hillary and Sadie came over to visit as well. We love them. They're two of our faves. Hillary is another that makes me laugh. Here I am trying to look as petite as these three girls. Can I just say, every single blog friend I've met is tiny and petite!! My 5'9" self looks like a giant up to these girls. Next time the pics will be taken in a sitting position. ha!

We had the best time with Chad, Faith, & JennaBabe. We ate at some yummy places like Big Orange and Faded Rose while they were here.

We also did a little maternity clothes shopping with Faith and it was so fun. We made her do a fashion show for us. She has the cutest baby bump.

They also had the privilege of witnessing Amelia shoplift.

I wish I could say it was the first and last time but it wasn't.

It was the second time.

And there has since been a third!

So far she has taken dog biscuits, children's books, and parenting magazines.

We don't even have a dog, she owns plenty of books, but I probably should have kept the parenting magazines...there could have been a good article about helping your klepto toddler overcome her problem before it's too late.

I need to get a double stroller soon. She picks things up and sticks them in the basket below and I never see her! I get to the parking lot and her items fall out on the pavement as I'm putting away the stroller.

So embarrassing.

We're trying to explain to her that she can't take things without paying for them. I joke that this isn't surprising since she's a PK. (totally kidding)

So anyway...back to the real reason these three fabulous people actually came to Arkansas!!

It was for our friend, Caroline. She got married on June 14th, Caroline moved to Arkansas last year and what do you know...God had her sweet husband just waiting on her!!

This was right before her Dad walked her down the aisle. They played a song he wrote especially for Caroline for her wedding day. I bawled like a baby. Her Dad had major surgery on his head just a few weeks before the wedding. We prayed he would not only be able to walk Caroline down the aisle but would be able to enjoy the evening with his sweet girl. God answered our prayers! And even better...the doctors said they removed all of the cancer!!

Caroline's beautiful Mother, Robin. Love her.

I just love Caroline's story and loved watching God work over the past year. I have never seen a more excited bride than Caroline. She just made everyone smile from ear to ear the entire time.

I loved her dress...she looked gorgeous.

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The wedding location was so pretty.

The ceremony was outside of this pretty barn and the reception was inside.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

I was reading The Macs blog and saw where she made a summer check list. I loved the idea so we made one of our own! At the top of our list was make popsicles because I had picked up a popsicle mold several weeks back at Target. Amelia loves popsicles and I knew she would love to make her own. This is the only way we had popsicles when I was a child! (LOL) We would make them out of kool-aid. Or another thing we did was take a fresh banana - wrap it in foil - and freeze it. Fresh banana popsicles...ha! They were actually really yummy.

The first thing we ALWAYS do before doing anything in the kitchen is wash our hands. I actually didn't even have to teach Amelia this. She watches a show called Noodle and Doodle (or something like that) and they always make something in the kitchen and sing a song about washing your hands before you cook. This is the first thing she asks to do before we make anything.

I'm not going to lie though. I'm a handwashing freak.

I hope she'll continue to follow in my handwashing freak footsteps.

We made our popsicles out of two of Amelia's favorites.

Cranberry/Apple juice and Raspberry Lemonade.

The next thing you do is pour the juice into the molds.

Make sure you pour some all over the table and floor

and follow that up with making a face like this.

And then let Mama clean it up and say "it's okay!!"

And go back to having a good time! :)

I let her do everything. She poured the juice and then put the tops on.

I just tightened them up a bit after she was finished.

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Then place them in the freezer!

It's best to get dressed for the day and watch a little Dora with your peeps while waiting for them to freeze.

Waiting for something to freeze is like waiting for Christmas...takes forever!!

But lo and behold...just a few hours later and they were ready!!

I ran them under warm water and then let Amelia pull them out to taste them.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Today is the first day of summer! Even though it has felt like summer for awhile now﻿. :) We've made our summer to-do list and are having a fun time!

One of the things we love about this summer is Amelia's new friend, Shelby. My friend, Erin sent out an email that her 11 year old daughter wanted to be a mother's helper for the summer. She wants to get some experience babysitting but of course doesn't want or need to be left alone with children right now. Even though I have to say, Shelby is a very mature 11 year old! She read her babysitting books before coming over and knows exactly what to do if Amelia were to ever be stung by a bee or any other emergency should arise. How cute is that!? Today she brought a bunch of books to read to Amelia and some crafty things to do with her. She's just the sweetest thing and Amelia loves her to death. She comes once a week and stays for two hours. It gives me a chance to do some things around the house while Amelia is having fun with a friend! A friend that is old enough to say, "no, Amelia, let's not jump on the bed" or "Amelia, let's pick up our toys." Amelia thinks whatever Shelby does is just the coolest thing. Shelby told her that she could go ahead and eat lunch while she finished picking up the toys in her room and Amelia said, "I want to help, Shelby!" I've already told her that I get first dibs on hiring her as a babysitter for the girls when she's old enough to stay with them alone. I have friends who babysat the same kids through their entire childhood and they're like family. We would just love for that to be the case with sweet Shelby! Amelia asks when she's coming back as soon as she leaves. :)

She's a wonderful mother's helper. My friend, Erin should be very proud of the little lady she's raising!

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Happy Father's Day to my Daddy!! I still call this man when I'm having issues with my car (or) my home a/c is acting up (or) you name it...my Daddy knows how to fix anything. I can't imagine my life without him. I thank God for a Dad who was not just present in my life growing up but showed me the importance of living out your faith on a daily basis...what a gift! I will always be his Jill Pill. :)

And Happy Father's Day to my precious husband. Who lives in a house full of estrogen and pink. Bless his heart. This man dances with his girls on a daily basis, tells them they're smart and beautiful, attends many tea parties, plays hide-n-seek & peek-a-boo, changes A LOT of diapers, and on top of all of that - he shows them his love by loving their Mommy better than anyone else ever could!! There's no doubt he loves his girls. I love this man with all my heart.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

When I got married, my Mama and sister, Joy gave me a special cookbook. It has lots of handwritten recipes that they make that I love to eat. :) I've added lots of recipes to that cookbook over the last fifteen years. I've always thought I would make my girls cookbooks like this for when they move out on their own. A book filled with recipes that I made for them growing up. I was reading Kelly's blog and she shared a site called Paper Coterie. It's a really neat site that you can order all sorts of personalized items. I ordered my Mama a journal for Mother's Day from here and was very pleased with the quality.

I've started working on a cookbook through this site for Amelia. I'll do the same for Sydney once she's older and can join us in the kitchen. The thing I love is I can add pictures to the cookbook. I always take pictures of Amelia in the kitchen with me. She loves to bake and we do that a lot while Sydney is napping. She gets up some mornings asking "what will we bake today, Mama?"

I've not only been taking pictures of Amelia but of the ingredients and what it should look like when we're finished.

She likes to hold the pan before I put it in the oven.

And then we take pictures of the finished product!

These are sour cream biscuits. There are only 3 ingredients in these biscuits - they're easy and yummy.

I love spending time with her in the kitchen.

I hope she grows up loving to cook/bake for her family just like her Mama!

I let her pour in all of the ingredients and stir with a spoon or whisk.

We make big messes but it's okay - it's worth the memories made.

This was the day we made banana cream cheese muffins.

One of our new favorites!

We had to take some to the neighbor so we wouldn't eat them all!

I love compiling these pictures and recipes in a book for her to have when she's older. ﻿

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I still love to go to my Mama's house because the smell of new and old recipes fill her kitchen. She's always emailing me recipes that she's trying or that she thinks I would like to try. Holidays are even better...there's just something about cooking with your family. ﻿My fondest memory as a child is my Mama making candy cane cookies for us at Christmas. I've since started that tradition with Amelia. We'll have sweet Sydney looking on this year. :)

I love coffee with all my heart. I love to spend time with my girls in the kitchen. I love date nights with my guy. This is where I write about my faith, my wonderful family, my love for food, and all the fun that life brings our way!